Devotional thoughts - Lent 2013 - Day 10

I could see the lightning flash through the window blinds as I listened to the thunder and pounding rain.  My thoughts went to the meteorite which exploded above Russia recently, and the “blinding flash” that accompanied it. I thought anew of how desperately we need God, and how this is shown whenever such there is such an occurrence.  We even acknowledge God’s power in terming events outside of any possible human control as “acts of God.”   In awe, I thought of the Scripture that says:

O Lord, our Lord, How excellent is Your name in all the earth!

Guess I shouldn’t have been surprised that the Our Daily Bread devotional (www.odb.org) for today contains a reading of Psalm 8, in which the Scripture I thought of last night is the last verse.  Remembering the song “Awesome Wonder” by Kurt Carr and The Kurt Carr Singers.  The My Utmost for His Highest devotional (www.utmost.org) had a directive for my response to my awareness to God’s awesome nature.  

Psalm 46:10

¹⁰ Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth.

Thought of some verses from Romans 1 (verses 17-25, KJV):

¹⁷ For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

¹⁹ Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them.

²⁰ For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

²¹ Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.

²² Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

²³ And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.

²⁴ Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

²⁵ Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

…

So I am still before the LORD, thinking of some of my actions in the past and repenting to the LORD, honestly expressing sorrow for the consequences of my sin and what it cost others, thanking God for His grace and mercy, realizing in the Light of His Presence that I was not as much of a “good person” as I had thought, grateful for the salvation purchased for me at such a precious cost.  Then, the last part of 1 Corinthians 13:5 from the Amplified Bible came to mind:

⁵ It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly) and does not act unbecomingly. Love (God’s love in us) does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong].

“It pays no attention to a suffered wrong.”  Ok, I thought.  Then I felt it.  The knot that I had felt in my stomach, the pain in my soul, seemed to melt away.  It was gone.  GONE!  I am free of it!  Thought of Newsboys song, “I Am Free” and these Scripture verses (also from the Amplified Bible):

Romans 8:1-5  

8 Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation (no adjudging guilty of wrong) for those who are in Christ Jesus, who live [and] walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit.

² For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.

³ For God has done what the Law could not do, [its power] being weakened by the flesh [the entire nature of man without the Holy Spirit]. Sending His own Son in the guise of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, [God] condemned sin in the flesh [subdued, overcame, deprived it of its power over all who accept that sacrifice],

⁴ So that the righteous and just requirement of the Law might be fully met in us who live and move not in the ways of the flesh but in the ways of the Spirit [our lives governed not by the standards and according to the dictates of the flesh, but controlled by the Holy Spirit].

⁵ For those who are according to the flesh and are controlled by its unholy desires set their minds on and pursue those things which gratify the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit and are controlled by the desires of the Spirit set their minds on and seek those things which gratify the [Holy] Spirit.

Galatians 3:13-14

¹³ Christ purchased our freedom [redeeming us] from the curse (doom) of the Law [and its condemnation] by [Himself] becoming a curse for us, for it is written [in the Scriptures], Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree (is crucified);

¹⁴ To the end that through [their receiving] Christ Jesus, the blessing [promised] to Abraham might come upon the Gentiles, so that we through faith might [all] receive [the realization of] the promise of the [Holy] Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:17

¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (emancipation from bondage, freedom).

Galatians 5:1

 In [this] freedom Christ has made us free [and completely liberated us]; stand fast then, and do not be hampered and held ensnared and submit again to a yoke of slavery [which you have once put off].

The NRSV has translated Galatians 5:1 as:

Galatians 5:1

¹ For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

Hallelujah!  What a Savior!!!

… and my journey with Him continues …